Adding heat to rear bath in '04 19' Bambi?

[Westfalia]

I'm curious to see if anyone has modified their heating system to blow a little heat into the rear bath in the newer 19' Bambi's?

It get pretty cold here in Colorado, even in the summer at altitude. We occasionally use the heat during regular camping to take the chill off. In the spring and fall, heat is a must!

So why is it that Airstream saw fit to add NO heat source to the rear bathroom? A cold toilet seat is, well, cold and showers in that temp hopelessly condense water on everything in the bathroom.

The suburban furnace does have an additional duct running from it leading to what looks like the grey water tank (to keep it from freezing in cold weather). I don't want to disturb the function of this duct since it is providing a service to the tank, but I might want to divert some of its' heat in above freezing weather to heat the trailer, not the belly.

Any thoughts on this? I'm going to take some pictures today of the line and where I think running a vent would possibly work.

[Westfalia]

Here are a couple of notes from poking round today:

The furnace is an Atwood 7916-II. This unit allows for two side ducts off of the main burner assembly. Each duct can output on either side. The Bambi has only one duct attached on the forward (right) side of the unit. The other duct opening is blocked with a plate and will probably need a simple adapter collar to attach a duct. There are about four inches of work room on the left side of the unit to attach a new duct.

The current duct leads to the grey water and black water tank vicinity, under the vanity cabinet. Access to the duct is as simple as removing the two vanity doors (tabs on the back of each hinge for release) and pull the facia, as it is mounted with two cabinet door style latches. No unscrewing necessary!

The duct is a 2" round hose. Current duct temp for the tank heat duct is at about 92 degrees near the furnace, but only 72 degrees at the outlet. The plate where the duct mounts to the floor is offset over the hole down to the tank. I'm not sure if this is on purpose or not. Most of the warm air blows back into the vanity cabinet, around the black water tank, and back towards the shower pan. Also to note, there appears to be a less than 1/2" gap for the air to enter around the grey water tank surround.

I doubt this little heat is doing anything to help that tank at all.

I'll post some more musings about this later, but adding heat to the bathroom should be a complete snap! I can probably use the current duct in fairer weather. Adding another should be easy enough. Why didn't Airstream do this at build?

[Foiled Again]

No heat here. I've learned to leave the door ajar at night, AND since mine's a wet bath I wipe down the seat religiously (It's something you'll only forget to do ONCE).

I find my hair dryer will warm the whole bath up in about a minute (of course I've got a good one.) Here in Virginia the weather is pretty warm 9 months of the year, so having it air conditioned in the summer is also an issue - and of course if your black tank doesn't have optimum chemical balance.. in the hot sun...

I had wondered why they didn't just cut the top of the door at an inward facing angle so that some air would circulate in, especially with the bathroom fan ON, but then I thought about what smells could come back OUT!

I'm careful to drain my black tank every three or four days, use the tank rinsers frequently, and to I use septic tank bacterial additives which go a long way to controlling odors, but in a small small trailer, really circulating the air might possibly lead you to open the coach door and .

Well it's a thought anyway.

Tin Lizzie

[Silvertwinkie]

Our Bambi was the same way. I was actually shocked (in a pleasant way) to find the 25' Safari SS, which is very similar to the Bambi floorplan in the back, had heat in the bathroom. Get REAL warm back there now!

Having played with our Bambi furnace when it wouldn't ignite, I saw the space you had to work with. Wasn't a whole lot of space. I'm sure if leaving the door open isn't an option, then there has got to be a way to run a flex line back there.

The 22'...isn't that a wet bath? If so, I could see why they didn't put a wall vent there, but I don't recall if the standard 22' also had the same wet bath the CCD has......

[campcollector]

I Have the 03 Bambi with no bath heat, I think a way could be found to duct off the furnace run a hose to the vanity cabinet and put a wall vent under the Tp holder or there abouts.

[Westfalia]

Twink, do you have any pictures or specifics of where your vents are located?

As for leaving the door, it's not much of an option. As I'm sure you can recall, space is quite tight, and getting out of the rear bed is hard if the door is open.

Campcollector, ouch. That is quite a rip out job. It clearly shows what took me an hour to find.

[Silvertwinkie]

I don't have any pics of that area, but the vent supply in the bathroom is to the left of the TP holder on the wall that is the partition wall between the bathroom and the rear sink wall if that makes sense. Unlike the Bambi, where the furnace is on the same side, the Safari has the furnace on the curbside to the left of the entry door. The vent must run under the floor somewhere.

If you'd like pics, shoot me a PM with your email and next time I'm out to the Safari, I'll take a few pics.

[Westfalia]

Twink, thanks. I'm taking my trailer into the dealership today to do some warranty work (while I still have a warranty), and I'll see if they have a 25' Safari on the lot to look at. I can pretty much visualize what you are talking about.

As for install a duct, there are many places where it can be done, including in the partition wall. I'm looking back behind the toilet where the water pipe comes out. At least on my trailer, there is an aluminum plate there that covers the water pipe and the black water tank vent pipe. I've got pictures. I'll try to get this posted today.